Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant plans to play in the Los Angeles Lakers’ season opener against the Chicago Bulls today despite a torn ligament in his right wrist.
Bryant suffered the injury during a pre-season game against the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday and was initially considered “day-to-day” by the Lakers.
While the two-times NBA Finals Most Valuable Player was left out of Wednesday’s game against the Clippers, he played a full role in team practice on Friday at their El Segundo training facility.
“It’s just getting used to it,” Bryant told reporters. “I’ve just really ignored it. You’ve just got to go out there and play your game, just not think about it as much. I try to block it out.”
“It’s always been in my nature to try to figure out a way to play. I’ve still got a couple of days before the game,” he said.
The 33-year-old conceded he had made a few adjustments to his ball handling and shooting, adding that he would probably shoot right-handed today.
“It depends on the severity of it,” said Bryant, who has guided the Lakers to five championships. “The fingers are a little bit more complicated because that’s the last point of contact with the ball, but I’ve dealt with so many hand injuries I should be all right.”
Much is new about the Lakers this season, with Mike Brown replacing the retired Phil Jackson as coach and disgruntled forward Lamar Odom, the league’s best bench player last season, having been traded to NBA champions Dallas.
The Lakers will also be without Andrew Bynum for their first four games, while the 2.13m center serves a suspension imposed on him at the end of last season.
“We are working hard and we are getting things down in terms of what he [Brown] wants to see from us defensively execution-wise,” Bryant said. “He’s very particular about that kind of stuff. It’s a work in progress for it to become a habit but we are getting there.”
‘SU-PENKO’: Hsieh and Ostapenko face a rematch against their Australian Open final opponents, the same duo Hsieh played in last year’s Wimbledon semi-finals Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko on Wednesday survived a near upset to the unseeded duo of Sorana Cirstea of Romania and Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya, setting up a semi-final showdown against last year’s winners. Despite losing a hard-fought opening set 7-6 (7/4) on a tiebreak, the fourth seeds turned up the heat, losing just five games in the final two sets to handily put down Cirstea and Kalinskaya 6-3, 6-2. Nicknamed “Su-Penko,” the pair are next to face top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in a reversal of last
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and her Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko finished runners-up in the Wimbledon women's doubles final yesterday, losing 6-3, 2-6, 4-6. The three-set match against Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens of Belgium lasted two hours and 23 minutes. The loss denied 39-year-old Hsieh a chance to claim her 10th Grand Slam title. Although the Taiwanese-Latvian duo trailed 1-3 in the opening set, they rallied with two service breaks to take it 6-3. In the second set, Mertens and Kudermetova raced to a 5-1 lead and wrapped it up 6-2 to even the match. In the final set, Hsieh and
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei and her Latvian partner, Jelena Ostapenko, advanced to the Wimbledon women’s doubles final on Friday, defeating top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in straight sets. The fourth-seeded duo bounced back quickly after losing their opening service game, capitalizing on frequent unforced errors by their opponents to take the first set 7-5. Maintaining their momentum in the second set, Hsieh and Ostapenko broke serve early and held their lead to close out the match 6-4. They are set to face the eighth-seeded pair of Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens
Outside Anfield, the red sea of tributes to Diogo Jota and his brother, Andre Silva, has continued to grow this week, along with questions over whether Liverpool could play at Preston today, their first game since the brothers’ tragic loss. Inside Anfield, and specifically a grieving Liverpool dressing room, there was no major debate over the pre-season friendly. The English Premier League champions intend to honor their teammate in the best way they know how. It would be only 10 days since the deaths of Jota and Silva when Liverpool appear at Deepdale Stadium for what is certain to be a hugely
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